This invention relates to the art of article holders and, more particularly, to improved article holders of the type having pivotal, biased arms for engaging an article therebetween.
A wide variety of devices are available for holding articles such as brooms, shovels and the like in suspension through the use of arms which have a frictional, clamping or wedging engagement with the handle of the article. Such devices heretofore provided include spring-clip type holders having a supporting base and a pair of arms integral therewith and extending forwardly therefrom to receive an article therebetween. An article such as a broom handle introduced between the arms is clampingly engaged therebetween by the resilient spring force of the holder. Accordingly, the ability of such spring-clip holders to adequately support an article depends on the spring biasing force of the arms and the weight of the article. If the article is too heavy relative to the biasing force, the article will slide from between the arms. Other similar devices include arms which are mounted on a support for pivotal displacement about vertical axes and are spring biased towards one another so as to clampingly engage an article therebetween. In addition to the same limitation regarding the ability to support an article based on the weight of the latter and the spring force, these article holders are generally structurally complex and of an undesirably large overall size.
Other devices heretofore provided for holding articles have included cam-cleat devices wherein an eccentric having a serrated outer surface portion is pivotally mounted relative to a fixed abutment or a second serrated eccentric so that displacement of an article or a rope received therebetween in one direction results in a progressively increasing wedging action against the article. This wedging action is advantageous in that it avoids slipping between the article and holder as the weight of the article increases. At the same time, however, the serrated article engaging surfaces have to be spaced apart from one another a distance corresponding to the maximum diameter or thickness of an article to be received therebetween. Accordingly, the pivot axes for the eccentrics have to be even further spaced apart, whereby the overall horizontal space required to accommodate the holder is undesirably large. Expressed another way, the diameter or width of an article which can be held by such a cam-cleat arrangement is less than the space between the support axes for the eccentrics.